SXSW 2012: 'The Daily Buzz,' Matthew Lillard and Just How Weird Austin Is

Austin saw thunder Saturday, as well as a colorful character shouting “I am Thundar the Barbarian — where is my bride?!”

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"Fat Kid Rules the World" director Matthew Lillard

Saturday morning started out with more rain and a man wandering across Sixth Street shouting “I am Thundar the Barbarian — where is my bride?!” even as thunder claps sounded above him.

I passed Thundar on my way to Tim League’s new Midnight Cowboy lounge to participate in the podcast “The Daily Buzz With Eugene Hernandez.” Eugene, a fixture of The Film Society of Lincoln Center, had several segments teed up, including those with The Announcement director Nelson George, Fat Kid Rules the World director Matthew Lillard and his cast and The Babymakers director Jay Chandrasekhar. The Midnight Cowboy was apparently once used as a brothel, and we took over some of the “lounges” off a long dark hallway lined with ancient brick to talk about the SXSW festivals and some of the films in the program.

On the way out afterward, a different spectacle burst out on a street corner involving a man and a woman who looked as if they might come to blows. Lillard was prepared to get involved until another man stepped in to break up the scuffle. “That was my Ryan Gosling moment,” Lillard joked with chagrin.

(Exclusive)Saturday night brings Safety Not Guaranteed and Killer Joe at the Paramount, though both have played other festivals already (Sundance and Venice/Toronto, respectively). The Nazis-on-the-moon flick Iron Sky and the midnight shorts program take over the Alamo Ritz late night, while The Aggression Scale will play on one of the Alamo Lamar screens along with Extracted and Small Apartments. Scale has good buzz ahead of its premiere, and Girls Against Boys, which launched the Midnighters Friday, is fielding serious buyer interest already.